Triangle

Valeant Pharmaceuticals will acquire Raleigh-based Salix Pharmaceuticals for approximately $10 billion, or $158 per share. Including debt, the all-cash deal is valued at about $14.5 billion. Laval, Quebec-based Valeant makes prescription and over-the-counter eye- and skincare products. Salix develops drugs to treat gastrointestinal illnesses. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

Shalag Industries will invest $16 million in an expansion of its Oxford manufacturing plant and plans to add 40 jobs to its existing 74 over three years. The Israel-based company makes non-woven materials for baby diapers and medical and industrial wipes.

Global media outlets are reporting that some Lenovo laptops are preloaded with malicious software that could pose a security threat. The security hole is related to Superfish, an adware program the world's No. 1 PC maker pre-installed on some of its computers.

PurThread Technologies will partner with Greensboro-based textile company Burlington to develop products incorporating the Cary company's anti-microbial yarns. PurThread, which previously sold products such as lab coats and scrubs directly to hospitals, now works specifically with established corporate partners including Eastman Kodak.

MaxPoint Interactive, the Morrisville-based digital-marketing company that recently announced plans to go public, had revenue of $106.5 million in 2014, up 61% from the previous year, according to a securities filing.

Anheuser-Busch has withdrawn its opposition to Natty Greene's Brewing Co.'s trademark application for the phrase "Natty Greene's," a name the Greensboro-based brewer has used for more than a decade. Anheuser-Busch had argued the phrase is too similar to its trademarked "Natty Light" phrase it uses to promote its Natural Light beer.

Barbecue pitmaster Ed Mitchell has closed his restaurant at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham after being open for less than a year. Mitchell says the space was too small to meet the restaurant's demands and he is looking to reopen in a larger space in the Triangle.

First Citizens Bank of Raleigh will acquire Capitol City Bank & Trust, a community bank based in Atlanta with eight branches and $275 million in assets. Its the bank's seventh FDIC-brokered acquisition since the financial crisis began in 2007.

Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals has lined up financing for a possible acquisition of Raleigh-based Salix Pharmaceuticals, according to a report from Bloomberg News. Valeant could offer more than $150 a share, the report says. Salix, which makes drugs for gastrointestinal illnesses, canceled a planned $2.7 billion merger with Italy-based Cosmo Pharmaceuticals last fall.

Despite growing competition from rivals including Apple, Lenovo reached the milestone of selling 100 million ThinkPad laptops in December. The world headquarters for the China-based company's ThinkPad brand of products is in Morrisville.Also: RTP campus leased to Lenovo sells for $127M

Durham-based Quintlies will lay off 270 workers worldwide, less than 1% of its workforce of 32,600. The company hasn't said how many of the contract-research organization's 2,500 Triangle employees will be affected by the job cuts, which are the result of a corporate restructuring.

Three chief executives who took their companies public in 2014 were graduates of UNC Chapel Hill, according to Equilar, a Calif.-based firm that provides data about executive compensation. Harvard produced seven CEOs who led their companies through IPOs last year, while Columbia University, Stanford University, Texas Tech University and UNC Chapel Hill each had three.

Raleigh's planning commission approved a proposal that would allow for 58,000 square feet of retail shops anchored by a Publix grocery store in North Raleigh. Raleigh City Council must now decide on the controversial rezoning, which neighbors say will increase traffic and could put other nearby food stores out of business.

UNC Hospitals will appeal an audit report that shows it overbilled Medicare by about $2.5 million. The federal insurance program is demanding repayment from the health system, but UNC says that 56 of 59 total claims in question were billed correctly.

Real-estate blog Movoto ranked Burlington and Chapel Hill among the top 50 "Nerdiest Small Cities in America." The website considered the number of comic-book stores, video-game stores, hobby shops, computer shops and museums in compiling the rankings.

Morrisville-based SciQuest reported fourth-quarter revenues that beat analysts' expectations. The software company, which added 17 new customers in the quarter, also posted net income of $200,000 compared with a loss of $1 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. The company's stock is down 38% over the past year (NCtrend, September 2014).

Dennis Gillings will step down as chairman of Durham-based Quintiles later this year. Gillings co-founded what is now the world's largest contract-research organization more than three decades ago. He will remain a member of the board.